Researchers Develop Android App That Detects Your Mood
What if your smartphone was able to detect when you are having a bad day and automatically play some upbeat music to try and lift your spirits? This may sound like science fiction to some, but researchers are actually close to developing this type of technology. A group of tech experts at Dartmouth College have developed an Android app — the first of its kind — that detects and displays users’ mental health, behavior, and academic performance. The app, called StudentLife, collects data from a variety of difference sources, some of which includes the user’s contacts, time of calls, frequency of calls, location, how much the user slept, and it even randomly activates the microphone to determine whether or not the user is engaged in a conversation. It then analyzes the data and compares it with other students using the app to determine the user’s mood. All of the elements mentioned above have a direct influence on a person’s mood. Someone who doesn’t sleep or engage in regular conversations, for instance, is more likely to suffer from depression. StudentLife uses a formula based on mental health surveys to form a correlation between a user’s actions and his or her mood.
“Under similar conditions, why do some individuals excel while others fail?” said Professor Andrew Campbell, the project’s leading researcher. “What is the impact of stress, mood, workload, sociability, sleep and mental health on academic performance? Much of the stress and strain of student life remains hidden. In reality faculty, student deans, clinicians know little about their students in and outside of the classroom. Students might know about their own circumstances and patterns but know little about classmates. To shine a light on student life, we developed the first of a kind smartphone app and sensing system to automatically infer human behavior.”
There are some hurdles faced by Campbell and his team of colleagues, however, such as the issue of privacy. This type of app would inherently reveal some rather sensitive information about the user, so it’s important to have some type of safeguard place to prevent prying eyes. However, Campbell believes the potential of a mood-detecting app greatly outweigh the concerns for privacy. The team’s goal is to develop an app that detects the early signs of depression and other signs of mental illness, allowing people to seek medical attention before it progresses. Would you use a mood-sensing Android app on your smartphone? Let us know what you think in the comments section below!